these progressively ensuring the policy reform to create quality jobs investment. let's be part when denise is growth and progress. invest even easier now. ah. ready who ah, it's just gone 1500 hours, g m t 6 pm here and done. ha, well, him to the news allah on al jazeera live from out waterfront studio in the country capital. it is the final day of the fif of our cup. a major warm up event for the world coffee stage right here, next year. hello, i'm come all santa maria, welcome to this special edition of the news hour. where of course we'll keep you right across all the days international news. but our big, big question is,

this is this country ready to host the biggest sporting events in the world? it's algeria versus to media in the final of the our cap tonight. but just who will be competing for the world cup trophy in a year's time. the eye catching groundbreaking stadiums are ready. we will ask the ceo of the world cup organizing committee if counselor is to you're all welcome here. it's going to be an amazing of, of, of the world. cup of vote is going to be the best and the most uni. woke up over and will tell you how gross for the pitches has grown in the desert. and why the way fans watch football games could be about to change forever. welcome to tell. hi everyone. it's the final of the fee for arid count. then it will be at exactly this time one year from now that the fif a world comp itself will be reaching its conclusion. the ar cut finally just kicked

off. it's that al bait stadium which is about 50 kilometers north of where we are right now, 2 joints of african football, algeria, and to nicea. are the last teens standing this tournament reaching its conclusion up to 19 days of competition? 16 teams whittled down to just these 2. we're going to keep you right across holy action as it happens. help take us through the next hour or so. al jazeera, sports correspondent, and present to andy richardson. both of us, andy, residents of the city of this country for a little over 16 years now. and this is always felt like it was in the distance, the world couple, 2022. it's a while away. it's only a year away. and tonight's the big final of the arab campus. well, that's right. and it, and it was a unique bidding process that gave cattle 12 years to prepare. cuz remember back in 2010, when the decision was made, there were bidding for the 2018 and the 2022 will cuts rogue and i something that had never been done before. it will never be done again. now we have for the middle

east's, 1st will cut on its way the arab wells, 1st world captain over the last 11 years since the decision is my we pretty much seen this sky line. they emerge out of the desert. yeah, i think back to you again about 1516 years ago they were probably 56 buildings in us there. and that is reflected all across the country. we now have a metro link link. yup. most of these woke up stadiums, 7 of the 8 stadiums now finished the the sale stadium, little host the woke up fine will be finished early next year. but yet it looks as though cattle is pretty much ready. all parts of the puzzle and then we'll be talking to andy richardson about a lot more of those are as we go, but sit where we keep saying it in the arab cap whilst a tournament and its own right is very much a testing ground for the world cup next year, and it has given us some good insight into what works and what doesn't. and how this world cup will eventually take shape santa hamish was here in the studio a few hours ago speaking to the c. e. o of the quarter, 2022 world cup organizing committee. nasir al cartler. it surpassed all our

expectations in every sense, whether it's from the attendance of fans. whether it's the learnings that we've had from the 5th, our cup, whether it's in the stadiums, public transport with stress test, a lot of our operations, which have been very good. i mean, i can give you a few examples. 20 to 25 percent of all fans who attended the games use the metro and public transport, which is something that hasn't happened before even in our previous events. the other thing is we've tested define id. we had 200000 as our target to test and we've reached a target of 200000 fun. i. d 's obviously with the fantasies. there's a lot of key learnings there and we're moving into the next phase of testing. prior to the world cup. i mean, that had a lot of benefits in terms of testing, get the physical fun id, the digital phone id, and we're confident now that we're going to get it right. so i mean, even in terms of the broadcast, the viewership was, were really good. i think everybody is surprised by the success of the tournament

and there's because for the tournament to continue its current format now. so you must agree with me on this that our main concern now is the i told cove with 900 now it's hitting all the sports. what is the plan? i was still going to have a full capacity stadium. we're hoping and quite confident that when the world cup us or will have full capacity stadiums, we've seen that now we've seen that the, the group stages were at 75 percent capacity. then when we moved into the later stages, they went to a 100 percent capacity. and this is also part of the test. all the data that's coming out from the ministry of public health are quite good. i don't want to say positive, but they're quite good. so we're confident we have strong protocols in place. so now as you know, we're the 1st country to have hosted games with fans. during the pandemic. our protocols have been, we find and improved. we shared our protocols with other governing sports,

governing bodies. they've implemented whether in whole or in part and we have our protocols and policies for the world cup ready right now that have been shared. so we are as ready as we can be. now the rest is for making sure the world is able to keep covered and check. if things get worse, do you think you will be likely elim picks in tokyo and debating games like that? we're not going to accept any fans. look. i mean, i'm not a scientist, but in the medical world, they hopefully say that the worst is behind, and i mean, whether it's on the, on the mutations and the vaccines and the effectiveness of these vaccines. i mean, we're hoping that it'll only get better from here. marcella talk about the issue that's been overshadowing this woke up since day one, the human rights and we can't ignore the protest of some players. would you respond to those protests?

i think the players who protest have a right to protest, everybody has their right on social positions, political positions, whatever they may be. but what we ask of the players specifically because you know, they're quite vocal. they have a huge followers. we ask of them to really understand the facts and stay away from what they read and headlines, stay away from campaigners that have certain agendas behind them. because if they were to look at the facts and to speak, to reputable, reputable organizations that have been following those developments in progress over the past 10 years, they will see the other has done in terms of workers welfare workers, standards improving their working conditions as quite enormous and over the span of 10 years. nothing like anything, nothing like this has happened in the world. the introduction of minimum wage and improving of accommodation standards and the abolishing of casala, giving people the, the freedom to move from one employer to the other. and these are all how these are

all enshrined in legislation right now. and, you know, countries take decades and decades to pass legislation and through parliament and through the judicial bodies anywhere in the world. so people really need to see the amount of work that has put the progress that has made. they need to put it into context of the region and we've got our stance in the region. i'm sure that even if these players actually went to dig into the facts rather than just listen to campaigners and follow a trend, they would understand that instead of campaigning against for thought they would actually be campaigning for other. and this is something i urge all players, they have responsibility because they have a huge following. they have responsibility because they are the reason this world cup is happening is for them to contest against other teams and ultimately lift the trophy. so i can't imagine being a player standing for something that's absolutely false, standing for something that they are misinformed about. and unfortunately they listen to headline news headlines. i may self and they're not necessarily true.

this will be my strong, strong message to the players and their national associations. so moving into the next while there are worries among the l g b, t. community. whether they will be welcomed in cutter as an expect has been living here for a long time. we know the culture, we know the laws, but people coming in from outside. they don't. what can you tell them to lay any fears? i said it before, a thought as a welcoming country. i thought as a tolerant country, we as world cup organizers, are welcoming all fans, regardless of their backgrounds, esna, city, religion, sexual orientation. like at the end of the day, everyone is welcome here. what we ask of people all visiting fans and not just people always talk about the l g b t community with asking all the funds to make sure that they understand the norms

of the country. they understand the laws of the country as they would anywhere us they go when they travel to, to, to foreign countries. they always try to understand the culture, the norms, the, the laws of the country. and that's just normal. and like i said, we need to demystify a thought because there's nothing that is different than than the rest of the world . people live here that is a very international country. we have over a 150 nationalities, living and working here and got out. and we all coexist peacefully and you know, as you know, that is probably right. not top 15, safest countries in the world. and number one, safest country in the world are country. people have nothing to worry about. i pass them the strong message. you're all welcome here. it's going to be an amazing event . the world comes up that is going to be the best and the most unique wealth cup ever. the most unique world cup ever. andy, it's probably not wrong,

but there is a lot on his plate just from that interview. we here with santa there are so many vegas year and a work as well. fire is, is a store that's not gonna go away. it's gonna take is more teams qualify more players and coaches feel on about to talk about it. so we're going to come back to you later on in this news. our in terms of fans coming to this country fit for the welcome. next year, the so many issues with the uncertainty around coven 19 what they promised in 2010 . and what really sold this will cup said to the, to the fif executive committee at that time was this idea of it being a compact world cup. unlike brazil and russia that we just had well cups in where there are huge distances, travel for by fans and players. the, the enticing prospect here was that the players will be in one base. they like that . they're in one training center and the fans could potentially go, sir. not just a couple of matches at a well cut. they could go to a couple matches a day in the world. come. and that is what this our covers been about, sir. really try testing out the logistics as to whether or not what they promised

can be delivered. and this is what i wondered, did the organizing committee get the the run out that they really wanted? because this wouldn't have ended up being a full scale our cup as they would have hoped, because simply people would not have been traveling as much as they would have that open for co. yeah, they've not had the same number of visiting fans. that is, that is for sure, and that is the great unknown. we're expecting all the could be a 1000000 plus fans here in the, in the country for our, for the world cup. we've had a few 1000 tens of 1000 fans in a lot of expert fancy, but they have been able to stress test, the metro system stress test match the logistics around the stadium. so has been very useful just in order to organize games late at night. and some of the games kicking of a 10 pm cause that'll be reflected in, in, in a year's time. he has 10 p. m is prompts on europe in a time. that's when they want games to happen. and so just organizing games that late the players being able to play that song of night a is 11 ounces practice his alcohol. just keep thinking about the traffic,

call me so. right. we'll be back with andy. little bit lighter, plenty more to talk about when it comes to the our cap and the will cover. we of course, want to look at some of the top you stories of the day. and because you heard the ceo of the woke up organizing committee. now sir o'connor, they're talking about cove it in that, in to you, the world bracing itself for a new wave of corona virus infections right now. as the only con variant spreads, the world health organization says on a crone has now been confirmed in 189 countries, and it's even spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of immunity. the u. k . for example, reporting $93000.00 new coven infections in total. another record number for the 3rd day in a row and protests against new restrictions are happening right outside the british parliament. and in the u. s. infections of such 40 percent compared to last month hospitalizations. this is important, however, is in 45 percent. let's look at the situation in the u. k. though nave barker is our correspondence in london today. and nave. how are authorities?

they're coping with these rise in cases you've got to the balance as always how to protect the people, but also the economy. that is the critical balance and there's also a political balance that's being weighed into all of this as well. because boris johnson knows that if he rushes ahead, we knew restrictions. it could well lead to a rebellion within his own ranks. a conservative party m p 's that a furious about the possibility of new restrictions on the way a 100 of them rebelled only a few days ago against plans to introduce vaccine passes to allow people to attend large scale events portions and had to rely on opposition and peace for support. they're also a chorus of business leaders saying that a new restrictions would leave thousands of businesses largely in the hospitality sector. going bussed in the new year without financial support in place to help them. so the government is going ahead with the one thing that it is certain about in the certainty surrounding the vaccine program and the a, a,

the ability for boosters to really reduce the impact on people being seriously affected by the, on the con, very. and so over the course, the weekend football stadiums are the home ground of chelsea, stamford bridge, and wembley stadiums will be used for a mass vaccination program. a 24 hour sentence opened in north london. but a warning from study come, the mayor of london, who in the last hour has declared a major incident in the capital that as many as 1300000 people here in london alone, haven't had a single job scale that up across the country. and that is a very, very large number of people that the governments and health authorities need to get in touch with and get jobs into the arms of very quickly as ever all over again. isn't it? ne, valko reporting from london on the news. i thank you nave. the alert level has been raised in indonesia, where a volcano threatened to erupt again. $48.00 people were killed early this month and

$36.00 people remain missing. on mount the cemetery, everyone's been urged to avoid the danger zone on java islands. as experts report more activity, which could trigger an avalanche of lava and gas, severe damage as well as food and water shortage is being reported in some of the worst areas of the philippines at follows super typhoon ry. one of the strongest storms in the world. this year has killed at least 31 people. hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in the country, southern and central regions. jamal alan dugan has been following developments for us from deval city. siphoned right. first made landfall in the philippines on friday, but until now there are still many areas, many communities in at least 4 provinces that remain cut off. we've spoken to military officials here in diversity who told us that they're doing the best they can providing assistance, security, transport,

and reconnaissance flights to local government officials who need to assess the damage. in many areas they cover president rodrigo, the therapy himself also surveyed the devastation through a reconnaissance flight over the province of city. go and he himself admit that it's going to be very difficult for the government to provide that much needed 8 to many of these areas. before the faithful instruct, over a 100000 people were able to evacuate from their homes and to look for safety. but men here believe that millions more have been affected. we also spoke to civilians who survived to say they were grateful. they were able to connect and recharge their phones to tell their families in many other communities that they survive, but they are much more fearful about what the future holds. that's because many of them have not just lost their homes, they have lost their livelihood as well. it is 17 minutes past 6 here in

our on december, the 18th called the national di plenty more hit on this news. i will find out how a wave of undocumented migrants in chile might affect the outcome of sunday's presidential elections. plus environmental activists in serbia are blocking roads outside of government building. i'll tell you what better protesting about keeping an eye on the fee for arab cup final between algeria and tennessee, andy richardson, what's happening is still known. of course. i think the bigger picture here is that is not quite the final. many of the home fans would of loss, is it, you were cats are made it through as far as the semi final is obviously so much should have build up up behind their tea night. been preparing for, for as long as the country has said to get into this well come next year and they finished 3rd and the 3rd place player earlier on, but so yes,

so far still are still mill mill and another another huge event for the, for the al, bite stadium there, which will be the stadium where the very 1st matcher, the welcome we played next year. the 9 matches at that stadium right up to the year to the semi finals tech. okay. and eat. thank you for that. we'll check in with you again shortly. we're gonna head out though now to one of the fan zones here in dora side up the sort of hide it is that katara are which is the cultural village here and are not far from us. here on the coronation on the waterfront, sorry. what the like there? that's right call. it's absolutely bossing here. you have found behind me though watching the game and every so often i think someone's going to go, but they happen to be. now not only are they have because of the, our cup because of the final, but also it's national. they would be this much more activities in any of the year when it's been when they've held the national day celebration. and then of course, this is all in on dissipation for the world cup, and a lot of the funds that we spoke about the ar cut from,

especially from the region say it's been up to the brilliant because that was a blockade against catch up by some other arab countries and this way they've been able to pull through. now you have to miss you and i've been sitting with addiction . we've seen you a flag as well. but generally a lot of people are excited about, well, how can they said that as far as that so, so in terms of probation in terms of organization and even in terms of transport, it's been quite, it's been really excellent in fact, so all the trains in the metro take you straight students stadiums and this is the country that has rocket leads, developed an accelerated development and infrastructure as me or the world cup, which means basic infrastructure didn't exist before they won the business. and now you can get from one place to another across the country. really easy. that is a general sense of excitement in the and of course people from all sorts of nationalities, which gives you an idea of what it will be like for the world cup. all right,

enjoy yourself out there. sorry. hi. that's at katara, the cultural village in doha, on fee for arab kept final night. now i want to return to an earlier issue. you heard the ceo of the woke up tool here earlier about the history of human rights. and i would remind you of a report which andy actually did a few weeks ago because ever since cancer one the right to hold the world cup 11 years ago. the countries faced all sorts of scrutiny of its treatment of workers involved in particularly the construction of stadiums for the finals organizers say their commitment to work his welfare has led to a big improvement in living in safety standards. let's have a look again at and his report next year, cassandra lee sale stadium will host the world cup final. but now it's home to some of the thousands of construction workers. you've helped realize this countries footballing ambitions. they include v j in nor do i met their accommodation block near the stadium,

the job working capital for the last 15 years. order of about the i've seen big changes during my time here in my previous job. i had to spend a lot of time cooking my food and washing my clothes. now i don't have those worries. our food is cooked for us, my clothes go to the laundry, and the salary is paid on time. when we're back now, during the hot months, we get a 10 minute break every hour and don't work during the middle of the day. there's a rest area and we can have water and glucose drink. organizes say there have been 3 work related deaths and 35 known work related fatalities on wilco projects in the last 10 years. in that time, there also have been significant reforms introduced, including a minimum wage and the ending of a system whereby in the past work is had to get their employers permission to either change jobs or leave the country human rights group. amnesty international says progress on work is right to stagnated in capital over the past year,

but it did make an exception for those directly involved with the world cup. we do recognize that those workers working on work of projects have better standards of protection. the supreme committee introduced the workers was offering better standards, and i think that even a fruit to sometimes as 1st class workers because of the bridge by virtue of working on his very important project. but again, i think we need to see beyond these 2 percent and then make sure that the remaining 98 percent also enjoy the same protection surrounding some of the well kept stadiums. a so called walls of gratitude, pictures of all the workers we've helped build them. it's their efforts, the skills that assistance their patients while they were away from home to really help us bring the, you know, dream to reality. when is your v jay's work is funded his own construction project,

a new house back home in india, where he plans to rejoin his family after the world cup. and he, i don't think anyone saying that everything's been fixed and it's all perfect to at this point. but i think what i took from nazare carter's interview earlier with santa was that he saying, look at it in context of the region of time, of how long it takes for these things to change and other. and i think the organizers have been caught up front about that they, they admit there are problems to have been problems. they're doing their best at to remedy them. i think natural casso is very strong in, in his interviews, and he's just asking the players and of national associations to, to educate themselves about exactly where cats are, is now in that process. for example, in the last few days that the dutch football association of come over for a visit to cattle and that the dutch team was one of the, the sides that said before wilka qualifies. the players appeared in t shirts before the games. they were making a point about football, supporting change, and not very well disguised reference to what was happening in cat saw and,

and as the dutch f, i said when they got here, they had the chance to go to workers. and they said there's no point as boycotting the welcome because that one hope help the work is that he and the best way of raising awareness about issues is by engaging with the country am. and for example, the, the work that the supreme committee have done the organizes, they sometimes feel a bit frustrated because they can't just click their fingers and change the law on the country. they are part of that process into pushing the government into their forms that we have seen and all the while the pressure builds up because there are a lot of, um, concerted. i think you can say media campaigns and rightly focused on the issue. but if it's difficult to push back against that all the time, i just, yeah, i think it's something i've been quite def defense about at times. i mean it's look into house house and i'll 40 um. another member of the, the organizing committee saying he felt was a clear bias in the way that certain parts of the media were, were betraying castles, efforts to improve workers welfare. i'm. they just want people to come at this from

an educated perspective. the work that the supreme committee has done is meant that for example, then social labor organization, of course only branch here, only branch in the gulf here in consort. that is a united nations organization that can work between trade unions, the workers and the government to try and remedy some of the issues and the have been reforms. some of the issues have been implementing, making sure those reforms are implemented and actually the work is see the benefits . it's a topic, it's not going to going to go away. but the organizers are prepared to engage with the media. i'm the world on it. okay, of him and he'd stick around more with you like, and we can update on the game as well. some a little bit later. something a little different here cutter is actually aiming to hold the 1st carbon neutral world cup. joanna goucher, oscar has been to find out how organizes are hoping to do it to do that through one of the biggest turf. and trina stories in the middle east. it's early morning on a hot and humid autumn day in cat are. but the work of the world cup turf and trina

3 is reaching fever pitch. there's grass to be caught and watered and tough to be delivered to stadiums for the biggest warm up event so far, the arab cup. what we did here were just like a grab a piece of land from the desert and were converted to this beautiful, a land full of for trees and the grass. got those bradford for the gross by the way . because the girls need son or needs a water needs for sizes, and we can arrange all of this here. the turf is cut into long lengths. first. is then carefully rolled up on to a tractor wrapped in mesh. and finally, the precious bundles placed carefully on the back of the truck to release the stadium. the team here had the process so well rehearsed. they set a record for the fastest turf laying of purple pitch my, completing it in just 6 hours and 41 minute. but just like the 1st

middle east world cup, the grass here is unique. having to stand up to more boots and cold temperatures ever shorter period with matches held over 28 days in just 8 stadiums. this event is gonna be in the winter time. and with our design, new design of the stadiums. it's more compacted and higher. so we had the challenge that with this air conditioner or the stadiums. so it's cooler than usual by generating and you are kind of gus that can survive during the summer and the winter. and through the extensive a schedule of games, we get to know which species is going to walk more for the walk up. it's not just tough that they're growing here at this nursery. there's also all of these trees. some of them have been saved from sites around cats are, while others have been donated by members of the community. this is the place that we saved all the trees from all on the doha. some of the 3 are very old years.

that's more than 50 years old. so in each 3, you will find the tag and the stack or should have the name of the project that had came before and also what it's going. and it has a number that in our database. we know all the details about it actually for in some area or some of these, we know even how much we bought it or how much the person who did it for us or how much he paid for. so i remember one of the, so the one of their guys, he was a kid that is good. he donated like his gone for the 3 and he said like my grandfather, he bought it for tutorial and 1970 saw the for me, this is like their legacy and the history of the, of the, the cities. the trees on just hate to make the areas around the stadium that more attractive to fans. and average mature tree absorbs $21.00 kilos of carbon dioxide a year. the equivalent of a 170 kilometer journey in a petro car. cats are aims to plant more than $5000.00 of them. they'll absorb

greenhouse gases in local pollution as they aim. recall the neutral events. as the saying goes, the grass and the country will be greener on the other side of the world cup. your with the news, our live from daughter house sparkling waterfront on arab couple, final night, more on back to come. plus these stories, we live in santiago where migrants are racing to cross the border from bolivia ahead of sunday's presidential vote. plus the struggle to clean up after torrential rain causes flash floods in northern iraq. ah.